He told Desiree Taylor that health care reform will help bring insurance costs down in the Garden State.

“The average subsidy is like $5,000 so that’ll bring the cost down greatly. The subsidy will vary depending on income. So the lower the income, the more the subsidy,” he said.

While some parts of the Affordable Care Act have been delayed, Castro said the most important part of the reform is going to be the subsidies and that’s on schedule.

“Those subsidies will not be available until January of next year but you’ll be able to apply for it early in October so most of the Affordable Care Act is on schedule I would say,” he said. “And I’m very impressed with the planning so far. I think the state has been preparing for the Medicaid expansion because they will be administering that piece of the reform.”